Apple: Most brutally capitalistic company on the planet

For some, Apple is always doomed. In the old days, because they were too small, dwarfed by Microsoft. Then, a decade ago, it was because the iPod boom would surely prove fleeting and soon go bust. Now, it’s because they’re too big, doomed by their success and the company’s institutional hubris.

The Apple win in the Samsung case has unleashed some unpleasant vitriol and Apple hating around the internet and in some newspapers such as The Guardian and, even, The Times. In this morning’s edition of The Times[1], Milo Yiannoploulos (editor of technology magazine The Kernel) penned an equally misguided diatribe, suggesting that the world is fed up with Apple and is looking for somewhere else to spend its cash. Just read this:

The mask is slipping, and Apple is being revealed for what it is: the most brutally capitalistic company on the planet. Those students who once sported their sleekly designed devices with pride will be starting to question their choices. Of course, there’s no hint yet of this attitudinal change in Apple’s sales figures. But this ripple of outrage among technology’s opinion-formers will mutate into general public opinion. And, at some point it will hit Apple’s bottom line.

If anything, it is Milo Yiannopoulos whose mask is slipping. Anything successful must be “brutally capitalistic” and must be vanquished by the forces of the left and anarchy. The only surprising thing is that these comments appeared in Murdoch’s The Times and not in the The Guardian, which is slightly to the left of Karl Marx on most issues and could be excused.

Apple has shown true innovation over the past ten years since the introduction of the first iPod. It has led the way and it has been successful. Should it now stand by and let competitors slavishly copy everything that has been built up? If that is brutal capitalism, let’s have more of it.

I would like to link to this article in The Times but it is behind a paywall. This is why The Times is never mentioned anywhere and I do so only under duress. ↩